Correction: In the ICIS news story headlined “Saudi Methanol 1.7m tonne/yr plant shut on technical issues” dated 10 December 2009, this paragraph… The plant, which was restarted on 1 September, was shut for maintenance work lasting around 25 days after its planned annual turnaround in early August… has been removed because it referred to an International Methanol Co plant, not the Saudi Methanol Co plant covered in the story. A corrected story follows.

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Saudi Methanol Co's 1.7m tonnes/year methanol unit (Ar-Razi 5) in Al-Jubail has been shut down due to technical issues, a company source said late on Wednesday.

It had been operating erratically since early October, the source said.

“Hopefully this is a small problem and the plant should be up soon,” he added. “People have been asking me for spot cargo, but I don’t have it because of our production issues.”

?xml:namespace>China methanol was assessed at $290-295/tonne (€194-198/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) China on last Friday, up $20/tonne from the previous week, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

This unit is the company’s fifth methanol plant. The company's total methanol capacity stands at 4.7m tonnes/year.